Will Millennials Turn to Capitalism or Socialism on Their Quest for Truth?

Authenticity without truth and humility means nothing. Millennials, especially Christian millennials, are looking for authentic leaders who will make a difference in the world. On a quest for truth, they want actions, not words.

"Don't count millennials out. Millennials are the hero generation. They are just biding their time and looking for someone that will stand up and say, let's go this way," Glenn said.

RELATED: Time to Pass the Baton to the Next Hero Generation: The Millennials 

No one understands this important block of voters more than Audrea Taylor. Formerly with TheBlaze, Audrea launched Because I Care to reach millennials across the U.S. The program has reached students on 40 college campuses, informing them about the importance of voting.

"We want to make a difference. And so we have to connect that to voting and help millennials understand that part of your civic responsibility and part of you making a difference, part of the way that you love and serve and care for your neighbor is in the voting booth and the way that you elect your leaders and who you elect to represent you and delegate that authority to," Taylor said.

Audrea joined Glenn on his radio program Tuesday to talk about the success of Because I Care and what millennials really want.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these questions:

• Do millennials affiliate with a political party?

• What is the number one goal of millennials?

• What do millennials have in common with the generations that came up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II?

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN:  A good friend of the program.  And somebody who used to work for me and is now on their own doing a campaign, Because I care.  And it's BecauseICare.us.  Right?

AUDREA:  Correct.  Yeah.

GLENN:  And you have felt compelled for a long time to work with millennials.  At 17 years old, you were out doing all kinds of things.  And I think you're a rising superstar.  

Tell me -- tell me where millennials are right now.

AUDREA:  They're just apathetic to the political process.  They don't like the candidates.  They don't like the parties, even.  And so I think the concern is that a lot of them are going to stay home.  They're -- a lot of polling and studies are showing that millennials are less engaged than they were in 2012.

GLENN:  Which is the opposite of what the Democrats thought would happen, because of Barack Obama.  They thought they would develop this army of millennials who would come and march into battle with them, one after the other.

AUDREA:  Not the case.  Not the case.  So what they're discovering is that millennials are really fair game right now for anyone because they're -- they're seeing through the hypocrisy in both parties, and they're realizing, "Hey, I don't think I'm into this."  So what we're talking about, you might not like the candidate or the party, but we vote because we care about too many other things, in our community, in our nation, locally.  Our friends that are still looking for a job.  There's too many issues close to our heart that we care about.  And so we're talking to millennials on over 40 college campuses nationwide, and we're saying, "Let's vote because we care about too many other things."

GLENN:  So who does a millennial vote for?  As I watched the campaign -- I try to watch it as a millennial.  I try to watch it from four different perspectives.  And one of them is millennials.  And as I watched them, I realized this last election -- or, this last debate, that we all thought authenticity was the key word.  But it's not authenticity.  Because I believe that, in a way, Hillary Clinton is authentically who she is.  She's nobody.  She's -- she's hollow.

AUDREA:  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  And she is fake.  I think that's who she really is.  I bet you if you meet her in real life, much of what you see is who she is.

AUDREA:  Yeah.

GLENN:  Donald Trump is authentically like that.  I don't think there's a game or a face --

AUDREA:  He's himself.  Yeah.

GLENN:  He's himself.

AUDREA:  Yeah.  Yeah.

GLENN:  Okay?  

I think the word is transparent, that you would say, "This is who I am, flaws and all."

AUDREA:  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  Hillary won't say flaws.  Donald won't say flaws.

AUDREA:  Arrogance there.

GLENN:  And so we need truth.  Authenticity without truth is nothing.  Without humility, is nothing.  And as I'm watching these two, I think to myself.  They look to me like 1956.

AUDREA:  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  Millennials would have nothing to relate to with these two.  Nothing.

AUDREA:  Well, you said it.  It's truth.  Millennials are on a quest for truth.  They're trying to discover what truth is.  And so what we talk about a lot is that millennials to have discover that for themselves.  We've had a lack of education for us to even delve in and begin having those conversations.  But then we're also encouraging millennials, it's not just about these two candidates, although it represents the problems in the political system.

GLENN:  Yes.

AUDREA:  There's so many other races statewide and congressionally and locally, that millennials can have a huge impact on.  We're the largest voting bloc right now in history.  And so when we look at us sitting back and not, you know, participating, largest generation in US history.  And so millennials can have a massive impact, if we decide to do something with that power.

GLENN:  What is the response on campus?

AUDREA:  The response on campus has been good because they are -- they're encouraged that someone is not telling them who to vote for and that we're not telling them the answers and a party.  So the only voice that's been on campus is either a Republican group or a Democratic group.  And millennials are saying, "I'm not either one of those."  

And when we talk to them and say, "Look, we realize that we're not going to tell you who to vote for, you vote according to your conscience, but we're encouraging you to educate yourself and to care about these things.  And we realize that you don't like politics, I don't like politics, but we vote because too many other things are important."

GLENN:  So help me out on the churches.  I think the church has really done more damage to itself than Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker did.  Jimmy Swaggart did.  And because that one is about an individual.  This is about the institution.  Millennials -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- I hope I'm wrong.  Millennials -- at least the ones that I know -- you are a good example of it -- are, don't tell me about it.  I'm so sick of hearing about it.  Show me.

AUDREA:  Yeah.  Solutions.

GLENN:  Show me -- not just a solution.  Show me what you are doing.  I'll follow you if you are doing it and it's making a difference.  

But what's happened is, in my point of view, millennials have been going to church.  They've been listening to this.  And then they see, when the chips are down, you jettison all that and make an excuse and say, "Well, but it's different this time."  That's putting your faith in action, but in the wrong direction.  Which, if I'm a millennial, I'm sitting at church -- which, I don't want to go to on Sunday, and I go, "These people don't mean it anyway.  Why am I going there?"

AUDREA:  That's exactly right.  And it's because we're not consistent in our Biblical worldview.  So churches are picking a candidate that they like, for whatever reason --

GLENN:  Or, picking because they don't like the other one.

AUDREA:  Exactly.  But they're not consistent in explaining their Biblical worldview.  Because it's not consistent.  And they know it's not.  

And this is happening, not just nationally, but also locally.  We've seen this happen to churches locally too.  

So they need to talk about a Biblical worldview, all four years, right?  Not just every four years, every two years.  And talk about those Biblical principles and how they apply to the tough issues of our day.  When they do that, consistently, authentically, truthfully, you're right, millennials do understand it, and they want to be a part of it.  But the church hasn't done that.  And they've been hypocritical in the way they've approached elections for a long time.

GLENN:  And that is the thing that we don't -- we don't understand.  This generation is different than the proceeding four generations.

AUDREA:  Way different.  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  This is -- your generation is the hero generation.  That's the actual title.  It is the generation that is exactly like the generation that came up in the Great Depression and fought World War II.  

And so you're all about action.  You're all about togetherness.  It's why you can be swayed by a socialist message.

GLENN:  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  Because you want to do good.

AUDREA:  It's our number one goal in life.  

GLENN:  Right.  You want to do good.  You look at the world as a collective.

AUDREA:  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  And if somebody is saying those things to you, it immediately connects.

AUDREA:  Yes.

GLENN:  But if nobody is on the other side saying, "Yes, we can make a difference.  We can make things good, and we can make things better together, but we have to remember the individual, that you count."

AUDREA:  Yeah.

GLENN:  It goes awry.

AUDREA:  Absolutely.  

Millennials volunteer more than any other generation before us in the history.  We give to more charities than any other generation in history.  And we're young right now.  

So why is that?  You're right.  It's because we are the hero generation.  We want to make a difference.  And so we have to connect that to voting and help millennials understand that part of your civic responsibility and part of you making a difference, part of the way that you love and serve and care for your neighbor is -- is in the voting booth and the way that you elect your leaders and who you elect to represent you and delegate that authority to.

So it's absolutely right.  We are the hero generation.  That's what we want to be.

GLENN:  What is the number one -- if you listen to the parties, the number one thing that millennials want is free education.  Is that true?

AUDREA:  No.  I think it's a lack of education and really understanding -- millennials want everyone to have opportunity.  And they don't understand that the best thing to create opportunity is a free market system.  And it's not free handouts.  It's a system that is so prosperous that it allows for people to, you know, work their way through college and to do it themselves.  But I think for a long time, we haven't talked to millennials.  We've talked about them.  But we haven't really spoken to them.  And there's other people that have, and they've done it really well.

PAT:  Yeah, their teachers have talked to them.

AUDREA:  Yeah.

JEFFY:  Yeah.

PAT:  Their teachers have taught them that socialism is superior to capitalism.

AUDREA:  In Christian colleges.  In Christian universities.

GLENN:  Oh, I know.  

PAT:  Yes.  Yes.  

GLENN:  I've talked to people at Liberty, and I've talked to people at BYU.  

PAT:  How do we overcome that?  How do we overcome it?

GLENN:  I don't know.  I've talked to BYU and Liberty University.  And they both have said that, you know, there's -- it's tough to find a Biblical worldview person that believes in the American system of free markets.

PAT:  Yeah, they're having a tough time.

GLENN:  And get them to teach.  It's almost impossible.

AUDREA:  And there's two reasons.  The first is that they use secular textbooks that are written with communist and socialist messages.  Unbelievable.

PAT:  Right.

AUDREA:  And then they hire professors that have a really great credential but have never been trained in a Biblical worldview.  And they put them in the classroom, and they think that if they pray before class, it might magically translate into a Biblical worldview.  And we know that it doesn't.  You know, we see it.  We see it played out right now.

GLENN:  What an interesting thing to say, that if we put them in there and we just have them pray at the beginning, it will magically transform them.

AUDREA:  Maybe quote a Bible verse at the start too, you know.

GLENN:  Yeah, that will transform them.  

So are you registering people?

AUDREA:  Yeah, so what we're doing is we're working on 40 Christian college campuses across the country.  And we're realizing -- we all know this:  Twenty-five million Christians were registered in the last election, but they didn't vote.  And I'm not even talking presidential.  There are so many other important races.  

So we've created a really great system that helps millennials get to the polls.  We tell them where their polling place is.  We help them register.  Twenty-five states, you can still register.  

But a lot of these students have requested absentee ballots.  So this is a great tool, not only for college students, but also for Christians to share and make sure that people get to the polls.  

This is too important of an election for us to allow two candidates at the top of the ballot to define the rest of our decisions.

PAT:  Before we've educated them, do we want them to vote?  I mean, I have (laughter) about that frankly because, you know, like you said, they -- they tend towards socialism right now.  Because that's what they've been taught their whole lives in school.  So they --

GLENN:  I just have to echo -- I just have to echo Thomas Jefferson on trusting the people.  They'll get it wrong, but eventually they'll get it right.  We have to trust the people.

STU:  That's a different standard though than what I think many people do, which is, you know, rock the vote, or whatever.  It's like, rock the vote after you've thought about it for 15 seconds.

PAT:  Yeah.

STU:  If you thought about the issues for ten minutes in the past four years, then rock the vote.  If you haven't done that, don't rock the vote.  It's -- there's no shame --

GLENN:  Yeah, but what she's saying is that that's what their group does, is not rock the vote.

STU:  Exactly.  It's exactly what we need.  We need people -- because, I mean, we always -- we sit here and blindly encourage people to vote.  It's actually a terrible instinct.

PAT:  It is.

STU:  You should not be voting if you don't know about the issues or candidates.

AUDREA:  Yes.  And exactly what you said.  Rock the Vote does, you know, 100 campuses, right?  But they don't educate.  And so we've started with a smaller number.  We're on 40.  We're sponsoring educational events on these campuses.  And then we're feeding them a lot of messages that go in line with, what are these principles?  Why are the reasons that we should vote?  And really covering those.  Because, yeah, we want to get out the vote.

GLENN:  How can we help you get the word out?

AUDREA:  Have people go to BecauseICare.us and just check out what we're doing.  Share it with your kids, with your college students that are on a campus right now, or even with Christians maybe within the church that might think about voting but don't get out and actually do it because it's on top important for people's communities, for your local government, to sit this one out.

GLENN:  BecauseICare.us.  Remember that.  BecauseICare.us.  

I'm on my way to TCU this week.

AUDREA:  Awesome.

GLENN:  To spend an evening with the students out there, to hear where they're out at.  What should I expect?  I'm actually kind of -- I'm a little nervous.

AUDREA:  I think they're going to be really eager to have a conversation with you.  Millennials are eager to learn and learn from people that they --

GLENN:  I don't want to teach.  I want to learn from them.  I really want to learn -- and because I believe -- and I hope I'm not disappointed.  I believe millennials are more like you.

AUDREA:  They are.  They absolutely are.  They absolutely are.

GLENN:  Yeah.

AUDREA:  No, but I think you're going to have a good conversation with them, is what I'm saying.  You're going to learn from them.  They're going to learn from you.  I think you'll discover that they're not as pre-decided in their thought process as people think that our generation is.  They're really not.  They're searching for truth.

GLENN:  That's great.  Thank you so much.

AUDREA:  Thanks for having me.

GLENN:  God bless.  

Featured Image: Audrea Taylor featured Tuesday, October 18, 2016 on The Glenn Beck Program.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

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A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

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Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

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This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.